The present invention relates to a mattress, box springs or other body supporting element having a slip resistant covering thereover.
Mattresses for use in conventional fashion, i.e., as support for a human body in a supine position basically include a framework or border of some sort, a resilient support means located within the border which is generally a series of interrelated coil spring formations, a foam structure, a water cell, or the like to properly support an individual residing thereon, and a cover material that generally fully encloses the support means and the frame. Such cover material is conventionally referred to as mattress ticking. Furthermore, under normal circumstances, a mattress is sold in conjunction with a box springs or other support member which is locateable therebeneath and which likewise include a support means by way of an interrelated spring arrangment and an appropriate cover. When the box springs and mattress are sold as a set, the ticking fabric that is applied to the mattress is likewise utilized as a cover fabric for the box springs for the sake of aesthetic continuity.
Ticking fabrics throughout the years have included various and sundry materials with certain basic criteria being considered in the manufacture of same. Particularly, the fabric should have adequate strength and cover to enclose the contents of the mattress or the box springs and support the anticipated human weight, should preclude against creation of tactile impressions of the support means on the individual residing on the mattress, should be aesthetically pleasing, should be economical, and peferably should be treated for water and stain resistance. The ticking fabrics may include a padding layer to preclude tactile transmission of the support means therethrough or conversely, a separate layer may be provided between the support means and the ticking fabric. Historically, as mentioned above, various and sundry types of fabrics have been utilized for mattress ticking, and economics has played a major role in decisions as to the type fabric to be employed. By way of example, for many years, conventional cotton fabrics were woven with a striped design that became symbolic of a ticking fabric look. More recently, due to the increase in price of cotton as well as the availability of the manmade fibers, there has been a tendency to move away from the cotton ticking and to utilize fabrics that are manufactured wholly from manmade fibers or from blends of cotton and manmade fibers. At the same time, such fabrics have customarily been coated with materials to improve the optical qualities of the fabric, to upgrade cover of the fabric and to provide a suitable substrate for the printing of aesthetic designs thereon.
Particularly insofar as fabrics including manmade yarns or fibers are concerned, the surface of the ticking fabrics offers less frictional resistance than a 100% cotton fabric in a plane transverse to the fabric surface. Likewise with cotton fabrics, however, there is a tendency for sheets or other bed coverings, unless they are form fitted to slide across the surface of the fabric, resulting in disarray of the bed, discomfort to one sleeping thereon, and inconvenience to the person making and/or remaking the bed. Further, and very importantly there is a greater tendency of a mattress lying atop a bed springs or other support to move relative to the box springs. Such occurs in retail outlets for the goods where bed covering is not applied and in the home as well.
In the present day market, conventional mattress ticking fabrics are woven polyester cotton fabrics in which the yarns making up the fabric are blends of cotton and polyester fibers, woven jacquard fabrics, and knit fabrics, such as tricots. The woven polyester cotton fabrics and the knit fabrics are normally overprinted with an aesthetic design while the woven jacquard fabrics include aesthetic designs that were produced in the fabric during weaving. The woven jacquard fabrics while being more substantial in hand and perhaps in aesthetic quality are significantly more expensive than the woven polyester cotton or tricot ticking fabrics, such that jacquards are normally limited in use to more expensive mattresses. Standard woven polyester cotton and tricot fabrics are conventioanlly uutilized in maufacture of the lesser cost goods. With all three types, however, as well as other types presently available, the problem of slippage across the top surface of the mattress is present.
Body supporting elements according to teachings of the 1present invention utilize a particular type fabric which overcomes the slippage problem while being capable of presenting an aesthetic quality similar to jacquard fabrics. In the context of the present invention, the instant ticking fabric may be utilized with one or more of the body supporting elements of a bed, and the term body supporting element is intended to refer to all such elements, as exemplified by mattress, water cells, box springs and the like. Particularly, fabrics according to the present invention include means to resist relative movement of a mattress relative to a box springs or other support on which the mattress freely resides without like restraints, of bed coverings across the upper surface of a mattress and the like. At the same time fabrics produced according to the present invention are capable of being back coated with polymeric foams and the like to achieve an overall fabric having acceptable or improved stiffness and hand quality. Likewise, fabrics utilized in conjunction with body supporting elements according to the present invention may be overprinted with a particular print pattern or conversely, include an aesthetic pattern knitted into the fabric at the time of manufacture.
Insofar as present fabrics, per se, are concerned, yarns are located in a particular arrangement in spaced apart fashion across the upper surface of same, which yarns provide resistive forces against relative movement of an item freely resting thereatop or vice versa. The particular top yarns, which are laid in during fabric manufacture, follow non-linear paths, preferably in pairs with each yarn of a pair preferably following a mirror image path of the other yarn of the pair to provide the resistive forces referred to. Though there is known prior art which includes the provision of decorative yarns laid in during the production of a knit fabric in the longitudinal direction, and along non-linear paths, there is no fabric that is known to exist in which the particular lay in yarns are arranged for the particular purposes of the present invention.
Additionally, the industry has historically been unable to back coat fabrics containing acetate yarns with success, and in fact, both the fiber producers and the chemical suppliers recommend against same. The inability of success of such a coating operation results from the elevated temperatures involved in the application and curing of the coating materials, which are adequate to cause significant degradation of the acetate yarns. Again, however, with the fabrics according to the present invention, same can be successfully back coated with polymeric foams under normal process conditions without experiencing any apparent degradation of the acetate yarns.